I hate my audi any way so no biggie, I test drove the new Cooper Mini today and found myself thinking I need to measure the radio space to see if empeg will fit, because if it doesn't don't think I'll be buying it. After over 100 bucks in liquid plastics and molding material.... close to 100 bucks for a new display board (doh! the sad thing is I soldered the resistor array on that one perfectly but found that I'd turned the display upside down while installing the LED;s and ended up ripping some stuff off the board trying to get them out... desoldering iron from radio shack for 10 bucks would have come in handy, live and learn) then 50 bucks at digikey.... I think I'm finished messing around with this thing I now have an illuminated empeg with 4 knob led's (fills it out quite nicely), 6 sets of nice red buttons, 3 sets of blue, 2 sets of green and two sets of purple (I know it woulda been cheaper to just buy the stuff from Brian, but wheres the fun in that?)! So basically I plan on enjoying it and not really messing around with it anymore.....

I noticed the following ebay auction for 0.25oz of ultraglow powder in red, blue, green and aqua. It's going for $4 or $16 per ounce. It's meant to be mixed in with other stuff, and for those that are molding buttons, I think it would be excellent if you can make a set of glow in the dark buttons in various glow colors for those who want lit buttons without the hassle of installing LEDs. And for those *with* LEDs, I think dispersing glow powder in the plastic might create a softer more even glow.

What do you think?

Calvin

As someone who would like glowy buttons but has big hunks of meat for hands when it comes to soldering, I think it's a great idea.

Alex

Due to the fact of the white leds I use being backordered, I have found a source for diffuse white leds. I have to say these do not magically fix the diffusion of the buttons. They only add marginally to the effect. I am now also including a Mk2a knob along with the Mk2 type. I hope to have a semi large quantity of at least blue kits ready to go out around April 8th.

Too cool!

Let me know when you've got green.

Here is a picture of my buttons and knob after my modifications, which included grinding down the LED tops, using some white translucent nail polish on the back of the buttons, etc. Also note that this is DarkStorm's "Smoke" faceplate. I think the blue buttons look cool against the smoke face:



I think green buttons would look cool with this, too.

Here is a picture of my buttons and knob after my modifications,

Drool!

Well, my backup's display board is out at the solderer, but I hope it will be back soon. This *IS* to cool. Tony, I think the overall effect is great. I'm going to do a little grinding, a little nailpolishing. If it comes out anywhere near as nice as your pic, I may just faint.

And Mk2a knobs, too, Brian! Can it get any better?

Would these UV LEDs work with the kit? Clear buttons with the UV might look awesome (assuming you can see them).

Those particular LEDs wouldn't - they are too large.

Interesting idea though..

Clear buttons with the UV might look awesome (assuming you can see them).

Interesting! 'Course, if you had very clear buttons and spent a lot of time in the car, you might wind up with this odd, cross-shaped blotchy tanned spot on your forehead!

Rather than clear, you could use these to fluoresce some of the colored fluorescent dust that has been mentioned here. How about: buttons with a just a touch of white and black pigment (to make a translucent milky grey, with some of the fluoro-dust mixed in (apparently that stuff is white in daylight).

I might have to get a few of these just for fun. A practical consideration: I wonder if they are available in surface-mount configuration for knob illumination?

It's really up to Brian. I would be pretty excited ifhe came out with glow-dust mixed buttons in various colors. Imagine putting a UV LED behind those buttons! They would light up the whole street.

Calvin

How about UV LEDs, and glow in the dark buttons?

From my experience, glow in the dark items react extremely well to black light. They start glowing the instant you get them near it, way better than using visable light. I'm not sure why this is, but it always seems to be the case.

Now that would probably work cool, because it would be the buttons themselves that were emitting the light, not the LEDs.

I have some of those powders coming in the mail and will try them out some time.

Great, that would have the dual advantage of

1) available glow in the dark buttons in various colors for people who don't want to go through with serious hardware mods

2) if you use the White LED with glow in the dark colored buttons, when the empeg shuts down and the lights go out, the buttons will slowly fade off..... how cool is that??? Plus the glow in the dark particles will help difuse the Led light.

3) use of UV blacklight LEDs to excite the buttons to glow brightly all by themselves. How cool is that? Plus it will be the entire button glowing, not a bright point right behind the button.

Calvin

It's because there's more energy in UV than in visible light. The shorter the wavelength, the more energy there is (that is, blue has more energy than red, for example).

Edit: I know I'm leaving a lot of variables undefined, but that's the basic idea.

3) use of UV blacklight LEDs to excite the buttons to glow brightly all by themselves. How cool is that? Plus it will be the entire button glowing, not a bright point right behind the button.

Well actually the UV LED will most strongly excite the particles that lie directly in the light path, so the effect might not be a lot different to what you will experience with the current setup.

That's true, but also keep in mind that the visible light that is created by the excited particles will not be aligned in the same way, and should be uniformly dispersed from their point of origin.

In other words, just because the UV light went in one side, and came out the other, along a specific path, doesn't mean that the visible light emanating from the glow particles that got excited along the way is going to follow the same path. Each individual glow particle should send out light in all directions, regardless of what direction the light that excited it came from.

So, the visible light should be much more dispersed, because it will be emanating from many, many points inside the material itself, in every direction, instead of all coming from basically the same point, and in mostly the same direction.

Uhmmm... I hope this makes sense... I'm sorta tired today...

LED Size is 3mm T1 Through hole. Just to throw that info out there.

Just wanted to put a few photos out there.... heres one in the car...

another in the car... close up, good shot of the volume knob

On my desk at work.... yes... slayer....

You're just goin all out there, aren't you? Blood red faceplate and buttons, listening to Slayer, with Casualty as the visual...

Nice. Good combo.






Aaaarrgh! All you guys postin these pics is gonna make me buy somthin I can't afford right now... damn damn damn...

cool! my buttons are on the way....

bye

Suh-wheet.

Hey, what's the little thing in between the empeg and the climate controls on the dashboard?

Thanks! The little grill like thingie... (if thats what your talkin bout) is the temperature sensor for the climate control... Yeah about the slayer and blood red and all... I was having a bad day, what can I say...

about diffusion, I had really excellent results by grinding the front of the buttons down to a rounded surface... I also filled in the backs to where the LED's bareley have enough room to fit after being pushed... I only finished one button last night, so I didn't take any pictures but I'll try to finish them up and get pictures up.... it didn't difuse all the way but did fill in a lot better than what I've seen so far but your left with a shiny round button... (I think is kinda cool looking), If I get some time tonight I'll try to finish and post some pics

People are starting to get these...How do I get one???

You need to email him directly. At the top of the thread is a link to Brian's site. You will find his email address on the site (I deliberately kept it off this post in case the webcrawlers snaffle it).

I'd like also a Red Button Lights Kit ....

If I want , do I have to only ask CrazyMelki the color I want or is it a special kit ?




(I like Dead skin Mask ...)

I said crazymelki, but it's Brian .......

The kits are slowly appearing. So don't expect a reply right away. I will only take payment if I have a kit ready to send out.